Snow

We got 26 inches snow this weekend, the heaviest since 1996. Last Friday, 70% students showed up in both classes.Gym was closed. So is the library. It is fun to see some students made tunnels out of piled snow on the campus.

I am from southeast China and had never saw such big snow in my life until I set my foot in M ten years ago. I was so amazed by the buildings connected by tunnels and skyways on the campus. In the winter, people walks through tunnels and skyways. Boom, they are gophers for sure.

Snow always carries symbolic meanings for many Chinese. Auspicious snow predicts a properous year (rui xue zhao feng nian 瑞雪兆丰年). This is an old saying that I learned from the textbook of common knowledge of the nature (zi ran chang shi 自然常识) in elementary school.

Born and raised in the south, I have never see dangers and risks behind the snow. I anticipated the snow every year. I liked the beautiful scene when they covered the dirt, leaves, and rocks, only leaving a vast white world without a speck. It is a pity that snow in the southeast China always melts down once it falls on the ground. It is rare to see a world covered with white snow in my hometown, let alone to have a snow fight. I only saw snowman and snow fight on pictorial books, movies, and later on TV.

Ten years ago I, for the first time, saw the snow fell down and covered everything with white in one night. Inch by inch, the whole landscape is completely changed. I saw kids made figure print on the snow, footprint of squirrels scattered around, and a big scared turkey trying t find the way back. The thick snow on the roof of the house made a kingdom of a fairy tale.

Snow really changes the landscape with its magic "revolutionary power."

This is an poem in a textbook of the middle school, which highlight the revolutionary magic of snow

Snow--- to the melody of Qian Yuan Chun

The Scene is northern land
Thousand li is sealed in ice
Ten thousand li in blowing snow
From the Great Wall, I gaze inside and beyond,
and see only vast tundra
Up and down the yellow river
the gurgling water is frozen
Mountains dance like silver snake
hills gallop like wax bright elephant
trying to climb over the sky
on days of sunlight
the planet teases us in her white dress and rouge

How splendid the rivers and mountains
which makes countless heres bow homage
Alas! The First Emperor of the Qin and the Emperor of Military of the Han
were lackin gin literary grace
And Taizong of the Tang and the Taizu of the Song
had litter poetry in their souls
And Genghis Khan,
Proud Son of Heaven for a day
Knew only shooting eagles, bow outstretched
All are gone!
For truly a great men
Look to this age alone.

沁园春·雪

　　北国风光 千里冰封 万里雪飘
　　望长城内外，惟余莽莽；
　　大河上下，顿失滔滔。
　　山舞银蛇，原驰蜡象，欲与天公试比高。
　　须晴日，看红装素裹，分外妖娆。
江山如此多娇　　
　　引无数英雄竞折腰。

　　惜秦皇汉武 略输文采；
　　唐宗宋祖，稍逊风骚。
　　一代天骄 成吉思汗 只识弯弓射大雕。
　　俱往矣，数风流人物，还看今朝。